Posted on 09/02/2006 2:29:35 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
PORTOLA
The state Department of Fish and Game says it wants to poison a Sierra Nevada lake next year to rid it of voracious northern pike before the invasive fish can spread downstream and devastate wild fish stocks.
The department proposes to drain Lake Davis in Plumas County to about a fifth of its current size, then poison the remaining water along with the lake's tributary streams, springs, and ponds.
A final decision is expected in January so that the department can begin draining the lake. The poisoning would take place next September.
This would be the second time the department has poisoned the lake near Portola. The pike reappeared in 1999, either reintroduced illegally from a Canadian or Midwestern lake or having survived the first poisoning attempt in 1997.
This time, wildlife officials said they will drain the lake lower and use a new formulation of liquid rotenone. Since the first attempt, they have tried overfishing, nets, electric shocks, traps, even explosions to try to kill off the pike population, which nonetheless has exploded and threatens the lake's trout.
The department fears the pike could escape into the Sacramento River system, devouring salmon and other fragile species all the way to San Francisco Bay.
The latest poisoning plan was chosen from among seven options examined in an environmental impact report released Friday. The options range from leaving the pike alone to completely draining the lake but using no poisons, with variations in between.
The state has spent about $20 million on pike eradication efforts in Plumas County since 1989, when the fish were discovered and successfully removed from Frenchman Reservoir, east of Lake Davis.
"That's the most we've spent on an invasive species, by far," department spokesman Steve Martarano said Saturday.
The money includes the $2 million spent on the 1997 Lake Davis effort, and $9.2 million in reparations to irate residents who have yet to resume using the 4,000-acre lake for drinking water. The current environmental studies are costing about $5 million, and poisoning the lake would cost about $10 million.
The U.S. Forest Service, which controls the land around the lake, said in its own report Friday that it would close nearly 50 square miles around the lake during the poisoning. Once drained, the lake would take years to refill, depending on how much rain and snow falls each winter.
The nearby town of Portola depends largely on fishermen and recreation-seekers drawn to the region. State officials have been working hard to gain the support of residents, who last time posted signs saying wardens weren't welcome and shipped busloads of school children to protest at the state Capitol.
The department plans four public hearings on the proposal.
Surely this isn't the best solution??? The residents still cannot use the last lake they poisoned? Kill it to save it.
I was in Jr. High when they did the same here only to kill out the carp. Since our drinking water came from the lake, we all got sicker than dawgs. Sure, it killed fish but the desirable fish. Fishing hasn't been the same since but the carp are doing quite nicely all these decades later.
The carp are thriving/?? hahaha. I think it is STUPID. And in other parts of the state they are cleaning up poisoned water, and charging the owners a bundle. Go figger.
They have 7 options listed in section S4 of the Table of Contents document at http://www.dfg.ca.gov/northernpike/EIR-EIS/index.html
Here's a link to the ToC doc pdf.
http://www.dfg.ca.gov/northernpike/EIR-EIS/Table-of-Contents.pdf
haha. no doubt. go fishing, leaves the water clean, there you have it.
Poor little pikes.
Rotenone has been used to decades to kill off invasive fish species. It kills by clogging the gills, causing asphyxiation. Fish netted while still alive are safe to eat, and the rotenone dissipates soon afterward.
We used to catch all kinds of them in Minnesota, Think of a rat with fins. ;-)
I could ask one of my relatives to send you a few if you like. ;-)
Here in Michigan the northers are a native fish but there are a couple of lakes so heavilly populated with them that there are no size limits. (or at least there were a few years back)
Pike are good eating if you get the bones out.
Invite the Japanese over to fish them out. They are fishing out the ocean ,I am sure they could wipe out a lake in no time at all. I would bet money if the japanese were invited over and given the fish free they would come over and fish them out.
Change is part of it.
If the ecology can adapt to the presence of civilization, it can adapt to the Northern Pike.
Publicity will simply encourage the few to reintroduce the species to the lake time and again. A revolving door of millions of tax payer dollars creating a side show that beckons the one loose screw, acting independently and alone, at a time of his choosing, who defeats the plan.
The problem is local and the solution is local. If you don't protect your drinking water supply then you will loose it
Just serve them up "blackened", that will wipe 'em out!
lol.. "blackened',, ,, these buggers mess with panfish and bass for starters, some can get pretty big with a lot of feed in the area.
we used to have a lot of carp and suckers, best thing to do with them was smoke 'em,
Can the find the s.o.b. who did it and just hang his ass at the entrance to the lake as a warning to the rest?...save us taxpayers some money?
Poisson poison?
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